Many services and programs use rules for configuring and defining the operation of the program. Some of the rules may be set by a system administrator, some rules may be set by a user of the system, while other rules may be set by other administrators at other levels within a hierarchy of the system. For example, a search service may have an administrator for the overall search service that sets rules and administrators for smaller portions of the search service (e.g. a site collection). Configuring and managing all of these different rules can be a complex task.